I'm strictly a cheapie chocolate gal, myself. Gave a girlfriend of mine a couple pounds of Godiva (her fave) for her birthday once. Boy, was I mad when she reciprocated for my birthday. She coulda bought me fifty pounds of Hershey's for what she spent. And I would have enjoyed it more. :lol:

the chocolate themselves are fine (the cheapest one is around $35), but whoa, the shipping is $32 :shock: !!!

Click to expand...

Then I am glad I have not heard of it nor tasted it. Sometimes it is better not knowing what you are missing! And at the price I guess I will just consider myself lucky for never having tasted Neuhaus.
I think I would prefer a large quantity of something cheaper than one taste of something so expensive.

According to fabulous foods.com, here are the ingredients for white cholcolate:

White chocolate is made from cocoa butter, milk solids, sugar and vanilla. When buying white chocolate, look for a brand that contains cocoa butter. There are cheaper versions (which by law cannot be called chocolate) that don't contain any cocoa butter, but their flavor is inferior to those that do.

Click to expand...

And here's how dark chocolate and milk chocolate are made:

Similar to coffee, cacao beans are dried and roasted before being hulled. "Chocolate liquor", made from the roasted, ground cocoa bean nibs (the meat of the cacao bean) is what makes chocolate chocolate. Thus, unsweetened chocolate is pure chocolate liquor and about 50% cocoa butter. Bittersweet chocolate blends at least 35% liquor with as much as 50% with cocoa butter, sugar and vanilla. Semisweet chocolate has the same ingredients as bittersweet with the addition of more sugar. Milk chocolate, which contains about 10% chocolate liquor, takes the process a step further by adding about 12% milk solids.

Click to expand...

Not really the same thing, IMO, but hey, if you love chocolate, who cares? Have fun. 8)

Researchers found chocolate contains four times the level of catechins than black tea, a common source of the anti-oxidant. High consumption of black tea has been linked to lower rates of heart disease and cancer. Dark chocolate contained 53.5 mg. of catechins per 100 g. of chocolate; milk chocolate contained 15.9 mg./100 g., and black tea contained 13.9 mg. per 100 mL. of tea, researchers report in the August 7 issue of The Lancet.

Researchers found chocolate contains four times the level of catechins than black tea, a common source of the anti-oxidant. High consumption of black tea has been linked to lower rates of heart disease and cancer. Dark chocolate contained 53.5 mg. of catechins per 100 g. of chocolate; milk chocolate contained 15.9 mg./100 g., and black tea contained 13.9 mg. per 100 mL. of tea, researchers report in the August 7 issue of The Lancet.

Hmm, looks like not all chocolates are created equal....

Click to expand...

True. Same thing with teas. Green, black and decaf all have different levels of both caffeine and anti-oxidants. 8)

I've never had black tea but have heard tons of good things about it...guess it's time to give it a shot!

Click to expand...

I can imagine it's likely an aquired taste. I've been drinking it since I was knee-high to a grasshopper, so I really don't remember what my first taste of tea was like.

Black tea has pretty strong tannins, so, depending on how you steep it, it can have a strong taste, as well. A lot of people add cream or lemon or sugar, to make it taste/feel smoother on the tongue. 8) (Just not cream and lemon at the same time, please! :shock: )

I guess I"m a chocolate snob... White "chocolate" is not chocolate! ewww!

I enjoy both milk and dark, but I prefer richer chocolates, which generally translates to dark or more expensive. I'd much rather have a smidge or something rich than waste the calories on something waxy... eww!

then again, yesterday I again indulged in my occasional habit of cheap brownie mix with a bit of water (batter without eggs or oil) eaten straight out of the bowl. It usually last a few days and is good for a chocolate fix.

this reminds me when I was in Italy on New years when the converted to Euro.. I was trying to use a vending machine, but it would only take liras. You were not able to get change in liras only euro, but the machine wasn't taking euro... It was so annoying...

If you make changes like that, you should ensure that vending machines and pay phones take the new currency..

i have a friend who lives in uk and he told me the british refuses to change their currency to euro - probably due to currency fluctuations....so if you're planning on visiting uk, make sure you've got pounds, euro isn't going to get you anywhere!

usually i'm too lazy to bring anything, but since our office is pretty close to a grocery chain, we never really had snack shortages! Besides, someone's nice enough to bring a basket full of peanuts this morning!

usually i'm too lazy to bring anything, but since our office is pretty close to a grocery chain, we never really had snack shortages! Besides, someone's nice enough to bring a basket full of peanuts this morning!

Click to expand...

In a former life, a few coworkers and I used to run a little snack-store in one of our offices -- an ongoing fund raiser for a tutoring program we started. That was totally hideous! Snacks everywhere all day long. :evil:

We raised money for a good cause. But yikes! I've never before or since eaten so much junk. :?